In The Shadow We Lurk

"Y-yes we are joining the quest since the guild master asked us but why did you need to come here?" Laena asked while stuttering a little because she heard her teacher's muffled groan after Leon's zealous explanation.

"I simply wanted to see you guys, it's been a while !" The paladin laughed.

'Really? You came just for that?' Jack and Zoe thought at the same time with disbelief appearing on their faces. The mage had been waiting for the immortal's party to come back after having talked with the guild master and her teammates in order to organize a training together. However, when she came to the inn Richard had given her and asked for them the bartender told her that they were gone for the day. Thus, she sat and started waiting when she saw another man come in wearing a shiny armor with the Church's symbol on it.

After observing a little from her dark corner she noticed that she knew who this man was and felt even more perturbed by the fact that he was drinking beers alone while watching the entrance. After half an hour, it became clear for her that he was also waiting for someone but she didn't expect that they were waiting for the same people. Since she also wanted information about their relationship with the Church this seemed like a golden offer and she had decided to remain hidden under her hood and face mask.

Studying their body languages and eavesdropping their conversation, she noticed that Jack was seemingly quite frustrated by the paladin's presence while the two girls were fine with it but a bit uneasy.

"It's... only for that?" Jack asked Leon while stopping himself from tossing his chair on the insolent Church's member.

"Don't look at me like that friend, I wanted to see how you were doing since you will be one of the main pillars of this mission." The armored man replied while raising his hand to call the bartender before asking for another beer.

"Main pillars? What do you mean?" Laena said while raising an eyebrow when she saw how fast he chugged his drink down.

"Yeah." Leon smiled before wiping away some leftovers of his beverage hanging at his mouth's corners. "Especially you miss Laena. When we heard how big that village was supposed to be and we thought about asking for reinforcements you were the first one who came up in our mind. After all, you are a dragon slayer."

'Dragon? You are comparing this flying rat to a dragon?' Jack nearly screamed that as he heard Leon's explanations. Apparently, they had searched through the records and legends of the ancient times and the only beings looking like the one they fought were the mighty dragons. The one they had encountered didn't spew fire nor raze cities but they deduced that the records were a bit exaggerated.

In reality, these books were indeed lying about the true power of those legendary beings. Dragons usually didn't mingle with the others and lived in secluded areas of the world. However, their wrath was something which would mentally scar a generation and slaughter the other one. Many cities got wiped off the map and some races also went extinct thanks to the relentless grudge of a draconic clan. Hearing that those beings which even him feared were mistaken for wyverns made Jack deeply sigh inside of him. 'Those poor guys must be turning around in their graves right now...'

In the dark corner of the inn Zoe nearly choked on her saliva when she heard that this small elf had slain something akin to a dragon. She knew that the monsters were appearing massively right now and that some ancestral creatures came to life again but hearing that a dragon had appeared and had been slain by a greenhorn like her seemed impossible.

'At least I know why they have been called even if they are C ranked adventurers but still... She? A dragon slayer? Was she hiding her abilities all this time...?' Many thought ran wild across her head while the girls did some pep talk with Leon. 'I definitely need to organize a training session with them. Jack is the only one who act like he hates the Church of Radiance but he's also the only D rank of his party... However, the feelings I got from him weren't some a weakling would give me... Why is it so complicated ?'

"T-that's a lot of honor for me to be able to receive such a title but still... Are you sure about it? " Laena said while being proud and embarrassed at the same time. Seeing that her aptitudes were recognized had been quite pleasant and she enjoyed it. However, knowing that they were making an error on the monster's race and that she had ruined her teacher's plan at the same time made her feel that she didn't deserve any of it.

Thus, she tried to change the subject and Evelyn helped her greatly by asking information about the life at the Church, how the holy knights were and many other things. They learnt that the holy knights were in fact fully acknowledged paladins and that maybe one day Leon would be able to join their renowned unit. Apparently, they were quite friendly but a bit tired since they traveled through the country from their HQ located way further in the east where powerful monsters roams.

Hearing the descriptions of their training and the arts they used gave Zoe creeps as she imagined their power. 'It will be harder than we thought Richy...' She sighed internally before focusing again on what Leon was saying.

During this time, Jack was looking through the window planning his spies' hunting session. Since the conversation had turned mostly into talking about their week and eating preferences he decided to ignore them until the discussion died out. The descriptions of the holy knights were underwhelming but he decided that he wouldn't trust them since they came from a source he didn't really want to believe. After a dozen minutes, he decided that he had enough and after excusing himself and bidding farewell to Leon he ran away in his room.

'I won't survive with this guy next to me more than one hour.' He thought while massaging his forehead. 'What the hell was Zoe doing there tough..? Maybe she has been sent by this pesky priestess to prevent us from abusing Leon's naivety?' Pondering the idea for a moment, he decided to class it as possible but highly unlikely since Andrew's party had been adventurers for a long time. They seemed to be more like lone wolves than followers of a cult but Jack didn't want to only listen to his instinct so he decided to include the thunder mage in his spy hunting plan.

Chuckling darkly, he thought that since their plan to grow quietly had been blown up by Laena's performance against the wyvern it would be fine to speed up things a little bit. Putting on his cloak, he took his blade enveloped in brown cloth and opened his window. After having checked outside to ensure himself that their wasn't anyone in the back alley where he would land he cast a Darkness Veil and disappeared in shadows that the dawning sun couldn't reach anymore.

Sneaking around the building, he noticed the presence of suspicious people in the street after a few dozen minutes. He knew that he was currently looking like a spot darker than the rest of the shadows and shouldn't be noticed by someone else but he didn't want to take the risk and simply studied them while sticking to a wall.

They were dressed like random citizens with colorful shirts and pants and were seemingly chatting with each other in a group. However, they didn't move from their spot during all the time Jack investigated the passerby and after having focused his mana sensing to the maximum the immortal noticed that they all had daggers hidden in their sleeves.

'I can't take out those four guys in the middle of the street like this... Well, I'll get them another day. Let's nicely ask our friend what was she doing in here first.' The immortal thought while unknowingly grinning. His stress level was getting dangerously high after everything he was taking on himself and finally being able to act a bit more wildly felt surprisingly good.

Cancelling his spell before walking out normally, he decided to find himself a good sighting point and after searching a little he realized that he would have to climb on a roof to avoid people's gazes. Sighing, he reactivated his veil and tossed his sword on the roof while cushioning the impact with air magic. Afterward, he grabbed some bricks and adhered to them thanks to gravity magic. It wasn't the easiest way to do so but it was a good exercise and it gave him the idea to ask Laena to do the same. heaving himself on the roof, he crawled on it until he saw the "Luna's inn" sign alongside the door.

Then, he started waiting for what felt like hours. He had nothing to do except focus on this door and rapidly felt bored. Even Leon left quite quickly but surprisingly Zoe stayed inside a few dozen minutes more before getting out too. In reality, she was simply avoiding to bust her cover since Laena and Evelyn remained at their table to eat something.

Grinning wildly, Jack followed his prey after having jumped on the ground and covering himself with his trademark Darkness Veil. There wasn't any sunlight anymore and the streets were only lightened by the moon and a few candle's light going through the houses' windows but the immortal had no trouble to follow the mage since her mana signature was quite easily recognizable.

Passing by her when the streets were empty, Jack awaited her next to an alley and jumped on her from the shadow before grabbing her cloak and tossing her in between the houses. Even if Zoe had been surprised by this sudden aggression and her opponent appearing out of nowhere she was still an adventurer. Rolling on the ground, she avoided the immortal's hand as he tried to pin her down while the air started to crackle around her.

'Do I fight her or do I talk? Once she start cast it will be too late...' A fraction of seconds later, he thought 'Fuck it I can kill her after talking if she's with the Church anyway.' and said :

"Zoe, stop !"

"Who are you !" The mage growled while getting up. She had also started to produce light and small arcs of electricity were dancing in her palms.

"It's me, Jack." He said while dropping his sword and removing his hood.

"Jack? Why the hell did you do that?" She asked with a surprised face.

"Why were you in our inn and how did you know we are living there?" He continued while ignoring her and removing the clothing around Vrolgr. Seeing his overall reaction to her and listening to her instincts Zoe knew that this man wasn't afraid of her in the slightest. 'How did he notice me... Didn't he go to his room anyway?' She thought before dismissing the ideas since they were only distracting her right now.

Furthermore, she didn't know what was inside of those rags but the feeling she got when looking at it remembered herself of a ruin they had explored with their party. It was supposed to have been the home of a wicked cult and the atmosphere back there was the same as around this thing. Sighing, she decided to avoid fighting since she knew that her mission was way more important than such details.

"I simply asked around in order to find you guys. You are pretty famous you know." She lied through her teethes while Jack simply looked at her while sneering. "And I wanted to talk to you guys too but -"

"Haven't you said enough lies already? Tell me truth, I don't want to have to extract it from you." The immortal replied while glaring at her. Zoe thought that she was hallucinating for a moment since she saw some light appearing in his eyes but she pulled herself together and aggressively said :

"Who do you think you are to be able to fight me?"

"Someone stronger than you." Jack replied while raising his blade toward her. He knew that he shouldn't be antagonizing her but his bloodthirst was too strong after having been refrained so much time.